St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day is a BrainPOP Social Studies video that launched on March 13, 2005. Summary Tim was trying to answer a letter about St. Patrick's Day, but Moby keeps interrupting him playing with his bagpipes. Once he finishes, Tim tries again to answer a letter about St. Patrick's Day. At the end, Tim needs Moby to practice his bagpipes a little more in the parade. When Moby plays, Tim covers his ears and wishes the audience "Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!" and ends the video. Appearances *Tim *Moby Trivia * The music that Moby tries to play on the bagpipe is: ** Bagpipes Honks Many Music Sound Effects Sound Effect Sounds EFX SFX FX Musical Instruments and Sounds Musical Instruments - World Class Sound Effects ** Bagpipes Tuning Long Music Sound Effects Sound Effect Sounds EFX SFX FX Musical Instruments and Sounds Musical Instruments - World Class Sound Effects * This is the first time Moby cuts Tim off from reading his letter. Transcript *St. Patrick's Day/Transcript Quiz *St. Patrick's Day/Quiz FYI Quirky Stuff As Tim mentions in the movie, the Chicago River is dyed green every year to celebrate Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. But how, exactly, is it done? The answer is: They aren’t telling. Each year, members of the city’s Journeyman Plumber’s Union drop 40 pounds of vegetable-based dye into the river—but very few people know the dye’s ingredients. The parade’s organizers claim the formula is a closely guarded secret. However, they also claim that the formula has been rigorously tested by independent chemists, and is guaranteed safe for the environment. Interestingly, the dye is actually orange in color; it only turns green when it reacts to the river water! The tradition dates to 1962, when the business manager of the plumbers’ union convinced the city to dump 100 pounds of a chemical called fluorescin into the river. But they used too much, and the water was stained green for a week. Eventually, they hit on the right amount to dye the river for just a day. However, some citizens became concerned about the tradition; it turned out that fluorescin is a toxic, or polluting, chemical. So, they switched from fluorescin to a more environmentally-friendly dye. Today, the Chicago River isn’t the only place you can find green water on St. Patty’s Day. For example, the city of Indianapolis, IN, dyes its main canal green, while Savannah, GA, dyes its downtown water fountains. And on St. Patrick’s Day in 2009, First Lady—and Chicago native—Michelle Obama had the water in the White House fountains dyed green! Myths Myth: Corned beef is a traditional Irish food. Fact: Corned beef first became a popular St. Patrick’s Day dish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among Irish immigrants on the Lower East Side of New York City. This was mainly because it was a cheaper alternative to the Irish bacon and sausages that were traditionally eaten on the holiday. The Irish immigrants learned about corned beef from their Jewish neighbors—they didn’t bring it over from Ireland! Myth: St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. In the midst of a 40-day fast at the top of a hill that’s now known as Croagh Patrick, he was attacked by a group of snakes. But the holy man lifted his staff, and permanently banished all snakes from the Emerald Isle forever. Fact: The truth is, there never were any snakes in Ireland. During the last ice age, which began 3 million years ago, Ireland was too cold for reptiles to live in. Then the glaciers retreated 15,000 years ago. There were snakes in Britain at this time, but none of them made it to Ireland—probably because of the frigid, 12-mile-long channel of water that separates the two islands. No snakes ever made it to Greenland or Iceland, either. Most people agree that the story about St. Patrick and the snakes was metaphorical: It represents him driving out the traditional Irish religion, not actual reptiles. Trivia * There are three places in the world where St. Patrick’s Day is an official public holiday: Ireland; the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the island of Montserrat, which is nicknamed “Emerald Isle of the Caribbean.” * Each year, Hot Springs, AR, hosts the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade along its 30-meter-long Bridge Street, which was designated as the world’s shortest street in everyday use back in the 1950s and 60s. * Although green has long been linked with Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day, the color traditionally associated with St. Patrick himself is blue. In fact, a color known as “St. Patrick’s Blue” is used on Ireland’s Presidential flag. The tradition of wearing green to honor Ireland originally came from an 18th century Irish independence movement, whose followers wore shamrocks in their hats. * In 1780, George Washington issued an official statement in recognition of St. Patrick’s Day. Washington had a number of Irish and Irish-American men under his command, so he gave the Continental Army, which was stationed at Morristown, NJ at the time, the day off. It was the first holiday his men had had in two full years! * During the Mexican-American War in the 1840s, a group of soldiers called St. Patrick’s Battalion fought with the Mexican Army against the United States. A large number were Irish immigrants who had deserted from the U.S. Army. Did You Know As Tim mentions in the movie, close to 35 million Americans claim Irish ancestry. That’s a full 12 percent of the U.S. population. So you’re probably asking yourself: Why did all of these Irish people come to America? Irish people have been trickling into the United States since before the American Revolution. Several thousand came over during the 1810s and 1820s to work on canal-building projects in the Northeast. But it wasn’t until the 1840s that Irish immigration really started booming. Back then, conditions in Ireland were extremely poor. Irish people mainly made their living through agriculture—but most farmland was owned by wealthy British landlords. The Irish themselves were given extremely low wages to work tiny plots of land. And potatoes were the only crop that could be grown in large enough quantities to feed entire families. Then, in 1846, a disease wiped out the potato crops, causing an unbelievable famine. Over the next decade, the population of Ireland declined by one-third, as a million people died, and a million and a half more left for North America. When they got to the United States, the poor immigrants found conditions almost as bad as they were in Ireland. They were forced to settle in slums like the dangerous Five Points neighborhood in New York. And they were treated badly by the native-born population, who formed anti-immigrant political parties to discriminate against them. But the immigrants stuck together in tight-knit communities. Charitable organizations helped the Irish find their footing in America. And today, Irish Americans are one of the most prosperous ethnic groups in the country! Flora And Fauna The three-leafed clover, or shamrock, has been a symbol of Ireland since before St. Patrick’s time. According to legend, the people who lived in pre-Christian Ireland regarded three as a mystical number, and thus held the plant—known as a “seamrog,” or “little clover” in the Irish language—as sacred. During the 18th and 19th centuries, when Ireland was ruled by Great Britain, the shamrock became a powerful symbol of Irish independence. As such, many people expressed their desire for self-rule by wearing shamrocks in their hats! In fact, the shamrock—along with the color green—became so synonymous with rebellion against Britain that wearing them was an offense punishable by death. This situation is described in a popular Irish ballad called “The Wearing of the Green,” which dates to a 1798 anti-British uprising. Here’s an interesting tidbit, though: There are several different species of three-leafed clover that grow in northern Europe, and no one is quite sure which one is the “official” Irish shamrock! In 1988, botanist Charles Nelson asked Irish people to send him the plants they believed to be shamrocks. He wound up with specimens from five different species. The most popular were Trifolium dubium and Trifolium repens, two species so similar that even trained botanists have trouble telling them apart! Of course, if you’re especially lucky, you might come across a four-leafed shamrock! Botanists aren’t sure whether the fourth leaf occurs as a result of environmental factors, mutations, or rare recessive genes. Either way, statistics show that one out of every 10,000 clover plants has four leaves. Some have even more; in 2008, a Japanese man broke a world record by discovering a clover with 21 leaves! FYI Comic Primary Source "First Foot on Ellis Island" Miss Annie Moore from County Cork Astonished at Her Cordial Reception. Annie Moore, a red-cheeked, laughing Irish girl from county Cork, enjoyed yesterday the distinction of being the first immigrant to land at Ellis Island and pass through the spacious six-towered building into the land of the hustler. She came to the Ellis Island dock with 147 other immigrants, mostly Celtic, on the side-wheeler John F. Moore. All arrived on the Guion lines steamship Nevada. The moment the side-wheeler hove in sight all the bells and whistles on the island were started going, and the entire population of the island began cheering. The discord was kept up until the little Irish lass stepped ashore. She found Colonel John B. Weter, Commissioner of Immigration; Assistant Commissioner O'Beirne, Chief Mulholland of the Contract Labor Bureau, Treasurer C. C. Manning, Johnny Simpson, and nearly all the other immigration officials waiting to receive her. Colonel Weber gallantly gave her his arm and escorted her up the wide stairway. Mr. Charles M. Hendley, formerly private secretary to Secretary Windom, had the privilege of registering Annie. He performed the unfamiliar duty with neatness and despatch. Annie said she was going to her father and mother at 32 Monroe street. Colonel Weber made a little speech welcoming Annie to America, congratulating her on her luck in being the first immigrant to land on Federal ground, and hoping that she might make some young Irish-American happy. Then the Colonel dazzled Annie by dropping a shining new American eagle into her palm. She had never seen any American money, and spent the rest of the morning examining it. She got three cheers just after getting the eagle, and blushingly walked aboard the ferryboat Brinckerhoff and came over to the city. Annie's 147 fellow voyagers were registered within fifteen minutes. There were ten registry clerks employed on the sides of ten aisles thirty-two feet long. The work of registering can be done three times as expeditiously as it was done in the Barge Office. After passing westward through the long aisles, the immigrants entered two railed enclosures. Those who were coming to this city went directly from one of the enclosures to the ferryboat Brinckerhoff, and those going away from the city waited until the side-wheeler John E. Moore was ready to take them to the railroad stations. Ellen King of the county Mayo was the first immigrant to buy a railroad ticket. She is going to Dorchester, Minnesota. The City of Paris's steerage passengers, and a throng of Italians who came on the steamship Victoria, were also landed. "First Foot on Ellis Island." The Sun, January 2, 1892. Category:BrainPOP Episodes Category:Social Studies Category:Culture Category:2005 Episodes Category:Episodes in March Category:March 2005 Episodes